Betrothed

Chapter 15: Logic Over Instincts

Brayden

I watched Willow intently after I marked her, and then when she started communicating to me in the mind link, she told me she could barely feel and didn't hear anything. That scared me to death. I shifted back to my human form and ran out of her room. I ran down the hallway until I couldn't run anymore and quickly ran the other way until I reached his lab. The doctor was sitting on a stool looking through a microscope. "Doctor, you need to come with me to Willow's room now! She is communicating with me through the mind link." The doctor looked at me like I was joking but I wasn't.

"Are you sure you aren't just making things up, Brayden?" The doctor, in his white lab coat and dark green scrubs, continued looking at the slide under the microscope. "I would never lie in any circumstances. I know it sounds untruthful because she is in a coma in human form, but she is communicating through a mind link. She told me she can't feel anything but slight pressure on her shoulder where the wound is. She also cannot hear anything but her own thoughts and our mind link." The doctor looked up at me and sighed.

"Her brain is playing tricks on her body. This will prevent her from healing or being able to feel and hear. If her body thinks it is in wolf form, then it is going to act like it. Probably explains why she isn't in pain and can't hear anything going on around her." The doctor stood up from his stool and walked over to me. " If she can't tell reality then we need to make one for her."

I understood what he meant slightly, but I didn't know if he seriously thought this would work. "What reality would make her brain believe it was wolf or human enough to snap out of the coma?" I told the doctor letting him know I understand what he is saying but she can't hear anything, and the mind link stays active if her brain switches back over.

"You need to make her brain believe she is in wolf form enough to make her want to shift. This will realign her brain with her body such as the way it thinks and the ability to communicate in each specific form." The Doctor explained as he went back to sit on his stool and switched the slide out with another one. He must have been testing the wolf's bane to make sure that is all it was.

"Okay, thank you, Doctor." I told him. "You can call me Milo, Brayden. I think we can be on the first name basis now given everything we have gone through together today." Milo exclaimed. "Sure thing, Milo."

I turned around and walked back to Willow's room. As I walked to her room, I tried thinking of the perfect way to realign her brain with her form. Something to make her brain align with her current physical state or her current mental state. The only thing I could think of is using her overprotective instincts as a weak spot to either get her to snap out of it or shift herself to wolf form. Either way it would realign her physical and mental states for each form. I didn't have much of an option. I saw her room door, so I decided to shift and start running into her room and then I tried to put a scared tone in my voice. "Willow!" I said scared into the mind link.

Now all I had to do was wait. I watched Willow on the gurney. She had not moved. I cannot think of anything else to say to her to make her scared enough to come to terms with shifting or waking her up. I sat there watching Willow for what seems like forever with no change. I decided I should keep the act going. "Willow, hurry! They are coming!" I said loudly with a scared tone into the mind link. "Brayden, what is going on?" Willow replied like she was in panic. I couldn't help but be upset with myself somewhat because this is what it has come to. Me not shifting to protect Willow and myself has caused Willow to lose her senses.

Willow

I heard Brayden talk to me again, but it was still through the mind link. Why was he scared and loud but not quite yelling? I couldn't stop thinking about what he had said about 'they are coming'. Who was it and why? I need to wake up from this coma. I thought hard on what Brayden said. The thought repeating through my head over and over again. I felt adrenaline rush through me from my frustration and anger of not knowing what was going on. I heard something ticking all of the sudden with the constant tick, tick, tick. What was I hearing? I lost my focus, so I continued to focus on the phrase Brayden had said, "They are coming!" I felt pain. At first it was like a pinch of pain but then it grew steadily fast. It hurt but I had to keep going. I can do this! I had to do this or else I would be stuck in a coma forever.

The pain continued to grow, and I felt different as it continued to grow. I wish I could see what I was doing, but I just had to keep with my train of thought. I was making progress. I could feel the difference. "Brayden, what's happening?" I sent it through the link. I was feeling a little weak from the constant pain that had overcome me. "Willow, you are doing okay, just keep fighting." Brayden said through the link. I kept fighting all right. "What is happening?" I begged through the mind link. "You are doing it. You are shifting, but you have to keep pushing yourself because your body isn't all that willing." Brayden said through the mind link with encouragement.

I was weak but I kept pushing through it. I can do this. I kept thinking about running through the woods on a full moon and what it would be like with Brayden by my side. The pain grew worse, and I was struggling to push myself any farther. "Willow!" I couldn't tell if that was through the mind link or in real life. I took a second to try and get some of my strength back from the pain I was enduring. I tried to use my senses. I was feeling pain and hot. I heard sounds but I couldn't make anything out specifically. I listened some more, and I heard the tick noise again. I listened some more, and I heard breathing. Was it mine or someone else's? I listened some more focusing on the breathing and trying to hear Brayden. "Is she awake yet?" I heard Brayden ask someone. I focused my senses on smelling anything. I could make out Brayden's scent. The smell of oak trees and sap would never grow old. I did it! I am in wolf form and my brain has finally caught up to my physical state now that they are on the same page that is.

I tried to open my eyes. It was a struggle, but my other senses were getting overwhelmed, so I wanted to give it a try. The pain my body was taking on had slowly started to die down. I was healing finally now that my wolf was awakened. Now only if I could open my eyes. I heard the Dr. and Brayden discuss how I got in this state along with various other things while I was still trying to show them any sign that I was progressing towards waking up. They have said that when I got attacked in wolf form my body somehow managed to turn back to my human form which is very uncommon leaving my mind in wolf mode. That caused the issues of not healing as well and leaving me in a coma. It was then I finally felt something come over me with the smell of oak trees following it, giving me the strength to open my eyes to see my mate hovering over me with a big smile on his handsome face. His dark brown hair was looking so soft, and I could feel the warmth coming off of him. I picked my head up and rubbed my head up against him and just let my head rest on him for a few minutes. Then once I gathered the strength to lift my head up again, I placed a big slobbery wolf tongue kiss across his face.